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Framing is complete!

If there was ever a post I was super excited to write, it is this one. Our house is framed! YAY! I love it even more than I did on paper. It was so fun to watch it go up…and it went up fast! The whole thing was done in about two weeks by a team of eight guys (and they didn’t even work everyday).

So let’s get to the pictures. There are a TON in this post, most of which will probably just look like a bunch of wood that doesn’t make much sense…it’s hard to give a house tour of a house without any walls. So I apologize in advance for that. Anyway, here’s a few pics of it going up…

framing progress collage

As a reminder, here is the sketch up of what the finished product will look like…

Front of House

And here she is!

Framing a house - front exterior

framing a house - complete front exterior

framing a house - completed garage and breezeway

Alright, let’s start on the outside and work our way in.

Here’s the front porch.

framing - porch wrap corner exterior

I am completely smitten with all the big chunky cedar beams. The double beams were Adams idea and I never really loved them, until now. They look amazing.

This is the same corner from the inside.

framing - porch wrap corner interior

8x8 cedar double columns

This pile of wood on the floor is live edge cedar that will be used as stretchers on the porch and breezeway. Adam cut them himself and they will be exposed, so you will see them from underneath and will get the metal roof directly over them.

live edge cedar for porch strechers

Here is the remainder of the front porch. We are series about or porches around here.

framing a house - front porch inside

At the end you have the front door.

framin - front door from outside

Here is the floor plan you can can get a sense of what you’re looking at.

Floorplan

When you come through the front door and foyer, this is what you see.

blog about building a house

That would be the living room, and the kitchen will be under the loft. Turning around you see the foyer on the right, the office nook in the center, and part of the dining room on the left.

framing - foyer, office, dining room

Here is a better shot of the dining room.

framing - dining room

And here is the kitchen.

Kitchen framed out

The center (where you see all the stuff coming out of the foundation) will get a large island with beams on each side. Under the stairs is the pantry.

framed out pantry

Here is a better shot of the loft above the kitchen and dining room.

framing - loft

If you stand in the kitchen and look out at the living room, this is your view…

framed fireplace

Y’all…it is sooo tall. I knew it would be tall when we designed it, and we wanted it tall, but dang. Adding the rustic trusses and metal ceiling will cozy it up a bit and I think it will be great.

Ok, so if you walk past the kitchen you come to the stairs that lead to the loft. They will be mostly hidden, you can only really see them from the corner of the dining room.

framing - stairs

Past the stairs is the mudroom.

framing - mudroom

This leads to the breezeway (and eventually the garage) and will have cubbies for each person.

Through the mudroom to the left is the laundry room, 3/4 bath, and broom closet.

framing - laundry room and guest bathroom

If you walk through the breezeway you come to the garage.

framed out garage

The garage is 25 x 50, basically a four car garage. The front half will park cars and the back half is the workshop. It is also plumbed so that we can turn it into a small guest house if we need that in the future.

Let’s go back inside and head upstairs.

second story floorplan

Here is the loft. We’re not 100% sure what this space will become, but I do know that I’m claiming that back corner as an office/craft room. Also, the small square windows are my favorite.

framed out loft

This is the view out of my office window. The pine roofing is the mudroom/laundry, and the cedar is the breezeway. That will be getting live edge cedar stretches and be exposed (like the front porch), so it’s cedar for aesthetics.

breezeway from loft

Anyway, turn around and you can cross the catwalk, which is directly above the foyer and office nook downstairs.

catwalk

And then you come to the attic.

attic

This is a huge space, and much to our surprise it is also vaulted. I wanted useable storage space in this house and I’d say we got it. Thing is, I don’t need this much space…I’m not a hoarder (and it’s not something I aspire to), so this is overkill. So for now it’s an attic, but it is also the “who knows what the future holds” room. We only put three bedrooms in the house with the intention of having everyone share, but if we need more this could become and extra bedroom or two. Or it could be a playroom, media room, or a place for all my teenage boys to hang out. This room pretty much assures that we are never moving again.

Here is the view of the living room from the loft, and you can see the attic behind the fireplace.

living room from loft

Okay, let’s head back downstairs.

This is the front bedroom (looking out towards the door).

framing - bedroom 1

And here is the second bedroom. There is a hall bath between them as well, but I failed to get a picture of that.

framing - bedroom 2

If you go back out to the living room and around the fireplace you come to a little hallway that leads to the master bedroom.

master hallway

Here is the bedroom, it is also vaulted.

framed master bedroom

That is the wall that the bed will be on and will be done in limestone, and rustic beams will go across the vault (just like in the living room). I already love this room.

Here is the master bathroom.

master bathroom

That half wall in the back is the shower, the vanity is in front to the right, and the closet is the opening to the left. Oh and the toilet is hiding back there across from the shower.

This is the view of the back porch from inside the master, which you have access to from a set of french doors.

back porch from master

And here a view of the master from the back porch.

framing a house - back porch and master

From standing in the backyard, here is the garage and breezeway (the breezeway is getting double beams just like the porches, they just haven’t been installed yet).

garage from back

Here is the back of the house.

framed house from back

And the master bedroom….well all the bedrooms really.

back of house - master bedroom

So that’s the tour! I think this week decking is going on, siding is going up, and windows are going in (they’ve already been delivered.) Now that we are at this stage there are a lot of decisions to be made, and the all have to happen very quickly. Making quick decisions isn’t exactly my strong point (nor my husbands), we like to do our research and be certain of something before we do it. So it’s a bit stressful. A good, fun stressful though, if that’s possible. A reader sent me an e-mail a couple of weeks ago (hi Andrew!) and in it he said this…

“Hope your house is going great! Stay focused on the end & the details won’t take their toll on your family. It can be rough at times, but it’s over soon enough.”

That’s pretty much my motto right now, stay focused on the end…the details will take care if themselves.

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21 Comments

  1. I never thought a tour of a bunch of framing could be so fun! Your home is going to be BEAUTIFUL. Beautiful!! I’m so happy for you, and can just feel your excitement through your words. It’s a dream come true, and would be for most people. Not only that, but you did it smart, and are not saddled with crushing debt for the rest of your life so you can’t enjoy it. Good for you! And that comment about keeping your eyes on the end result reminds me of like working on a balance beam. You have to learn all your moves with your eyes on the end of the beam. If you look down, that’s when you can get scared or even fall off. It seems counter-intuitive at first, but gets easier the more you do it. Yay!! How fun to see your plans literally rise up in real life!

  2. I really, really, really like your house. It’s not cookie cutter at all. It’s very special and you have some really wonderful spaces in there. It strikes me as a very livable, useful house. I think you’ve made really good choices so far, and I’m sure you’ll continue to.

  3. Oh WOW! It looks amazing, already! It’s so much fun watching it all happen :) And that’s good advice from Andrew… I think I’ll take it myself… it might make renting a cheaper, further away place a bit easier!

  4. Soooo fun! As much as you love working with wood, did you ever think you would love a bunch of boards THIS much?!? Are you still doing a big mesquite top island? It’s all going to be so pretty, and I love all your trees!!

  5. Ashley,

    WOW! Your family’s home is incredible. I love the openness and the abundance of space everywhere. As much as I love your home and everything thing that going on inside and out, I especially love seeing your children onsite as everything is coming together. The lessons that they are learning about perseverance, setting goals, hard work, team work and many others will last them throughout their lives. Congratulations and I look forward to watching this project, board by board!!! Thank you for sharing the journey!!

  6. Wow! It’s actually all framed now! What a fabulous house!! I think I’m as excited as you are .. Prob not but I love this house! Looks like you thought if everything and what a treat it must be to design the house you’re going to live in. I too love the big chunky cedar posts. Love the garage and that you have plumbed it for my future home .. Oops, I mean guest room! Lol! Porches are GREAT and you will love having one at the back and one at the front. And french doors off the master to the porch. Having that loft space for a craft room is perfect but still enough soace up there for other stuff too. Very well done! This house is the result of lots of dreaming and what a great job you both have done on it. It will all go fast and you’ll be in it before you know it. Very excited for you and your family! Just take lots of pics as you go along – they will be incredible to look back at after you’re settled.

  7. Woah, it’s happening fast! Or it seems like that from this end anyway. It must be so gratifying to be able to see things happening and have real progress be so visible. Building houses here takes forever cos it’s mostly all done in brick. I LOVE the vaulted ceilings in the living room and master bedroom, gorgeous. The french doors out onto the back porch will be beautiful I think. And I love that your office/craft room is tucked away from everything going on downstairs, but not really separate cos of the big open space. All in all I really love the feel that you’ve got going on here, enough room for everyone to have their own space….but in a very open “together” way if that makes any sense! Can’t wait to see it when the windows go in :)

  8. Having built several houses – just remember that, when the drywall goes up, you may all of a sudden think, Oh My Goodness! the rooms are too small!! No, the color of the drywall that is unprimed and unpainted makes you think that. It has happened to us every time.You’d think we would have figured it out by now, right?

  9. Lucky you guys! You’re really getting down to business. You did a great job on the house tour and look forward to many more. :)

  10. I never been so excited for someone else in my life. You have to do a camp out there with the boys before all the walls go up. Thanks for sharing with everyone! I can’t wait to see the complete house.

  11. Fantastic! I’m loving it already. What a shame you have to put walls up, the trees are so pretty to look at. I think your laundry already has a tub for washing in. Ha ha! Isn’t it great to see what was on paper (or computer!) plans come to life? So exciting!
    Believe me, in years to come your boys WILL take over the attic. My boys took over my caravan (trailer for you Americans) which was supposed to be my crafting/hiding out/reading nook. Boys need a place like that.
    Bub sure is getting big! You look terrific considering all you are doing.
    Cheers from the Land of Oz.

  12. Yay! Can’t wait to see the finished product. Your home looks really amazing. Love how you document each and every process of building it including this framing process :). Lovely to look at indeed!

    1. Neither of them have a blog or website, or even social media to check out. Our friends that we designed the house with are nearly complete with the outside, and sheetrock is going up today. I wasn’t planning to share their house yet, but the outside actually looks quite a bit different ours will, so I could. It’s been super helpful watching theirs go up (even if it ruined some of the fun of ours)! My brothers house is the furthest along and the builder is done…now he has to finish the inside. I can certainly ask if he would be okay with me giving a tour!

      1. I was just a bit curious since it is so exiting to see your progress. I can’t wait to see more from you and if you share their progress too.

        Happy Friday!

  13. I absolutely love this! It’s been 11 years since we built our old home but it’s easy to follow along and I can see, perfectly, where this is all going and I’m so excited for you and your gang of men! ;) It’s going to be such an amazing home and I look forward to more updates as the work progresses. xx

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